Cécé - by Emmelie Prophète (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"The best book on Haiti in a very long time . . . powerful, spot on, likely the best written." --Dany Laferrière

An astonishing novel of raw beauty about gang life, sex work, and social media in Haiti

Cécé La Flamme, as she's known by her loyal Facebook friends, captures photographs of still bodies. Figures scorched and bruised, left to the rubble of the Cité of Divine Power. When she posts an image of a corpse, Cécé's followers skyrocket. "Nothing got more attention than a good corpse that was nice and warm or already rotting." Just beside visions of rot and neglect, she posts pictures of her toes, gullies crisscrossing the cité, and her own lips painted blue. With every image, Cécé seeks control and wants to create a frank, intimate record of the terror in her cité.

Cécé's world begins and ends with the cité - a slum peopled by gangs, yelping kids, grandmothers, junkies, and preachers. The very gate that encloses the cité was constructed by militant gang members. First boss Freddy, then Joël, then Jules César rule the gang that holds the cité in a chokehold. Sharp, sincere, and desperate, Cécé cleaves life for herself out of social media, sex work, and attempts at friendship with other women. When an American journalist offers to buy the rights to Cécé's photographs, she demands double the cash. When an abusive former client dies, she wears hot pink to his funeral. Emmelie Prophète's novel is fierce, devastating, and suggestive - a record of a woman clawing back control.

Review Quotes

"The best book on Haiti in a very long time ... powerful, spot on, likely the best written. This splendid writer's talent grabs us by the throat from the start, tightens the grip with each chapter, relaxes later on, then grips us again at the end, leaving us speechless." --Dany Laferrière

"Emmelie Prophète renders the lives of others, particularly women, in tight prose and sharp narration." --Yves Chemla, Le National

"This audacious novelist invests her heroine with glory as she narrates on the social networks the lives of women from the cité. Totally believable, an indelible voice." --Valérie Marin La Meslée, Le Point

"A powerful, breathtaking novel with a diverse cast of ordinary people, this book tattoos onto our memory." --Ricot Marc Sony, Le Nouvelliste

"Emmelie Prophète's fifth novel is immediately gripping. The writing borrows its descriptive immediacy from journalism and the characters confront the day to day grind of existence. A compelling read." --Anne Bocandé, Jeune Afrique

"An extraordinary novel. The female characters are striking in their radiance." --Michel Désautels, Désautels le Dimanche

About the Author

Emmelie Prophète (b. 1971, Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is the author of two poetry collections and six novels, the first of which, Les Testaments de Solitude, won the Grand Prix littéraire de l'Association des écrivains de langue française. Prophète's most recent novel, Les Villages de Dieu, was awarded the Prix FetKann Maryse Condé, a prize that recognizes literature promoting human dignity from the largely postcolonial global South. Prophète is the former director of the National Library of Haiti, and is now a cultural curator in Port-au-Prince.

Aidan Rooney (b. 1965, Monaghan, Ireland) is a teacher at Thayer Academy in Massachusetts, USA. Rooney's poetry collections include Go There, Tightrope, and Day Release. His translations from Haitian Kreyòl and French can be read elsewhere at AGNI, Asymptote, Carte Blanche, Tanbou, as well as in print in New American Writing #39. His honors include the Sunday Tribune / Hennessy Cognac Award for New Irish Poetry and the Daniel Varoujan Award from the New England Poetry Club. He lives in Hingham, Massachusetts.